


Please do not Feed the Deer

by SunshineFlower345



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Accidental Kissing, M/M, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 03:17:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20941409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineFlower345/pseuds/SunshineFlower345
Summary: “Golden deer are scared creatures said to have protected Leicester since time Immemorial.” Or, Lorenz and Claude have a conversation about myths as they both break a certain rule.





	Please do not Feed the Deer

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @KEYchainet on twitter for the prompt! Even if the story kinda lost focus on the kisses in the end ^_^”

On the side of the dining hall was a small bench that overlooked one of the many small gardens in the monastery. Lorenz sighed as he sat down on said bench and opened the bag of apple slices he’d taken with him after dinner.

He held the piece of fruit in his hand for a few seconds before a small fawn poked its head out from the bushes, its mother not far behind. Lorenz laughed as they hesitated coming any closer to him as he gently threw the apple slice down on the ground.

But all calm left Lorenz as he heard a shifting behind himself. “If you are here to tell me I shouldn’t be feeding them, I already know,” He spoke and turned around to see the Golden Deer house leader grinning at him.

Lorenz felt a sigh before he could stop himself, Claude was always inviting trouble wherever he went, and Lorenz had been looking forward to a peaceful evening. But to his surprise Claude simply moved to sit on the ground next to him before taking a bread roll out of his cloak and throwing a piece for the deer.

“I’m not here to scold you, it’d be hypocritical,” Claude said eventually.

“I guess we’re the reason that the deer keep wandering onto the monastery grounds,” Lorenz spoke and threw out another slice of apple. The fawn smelled it for a second before picking it up in its mouth.

“Maybe we are, but you know, there wouldn’t be any deer if this place had been built in a desert. Humans built this monastery in their forest, so in a way it’s our responsibility to make sure they’re fed. But I guess that’s just my opinion,” Claude spoke, eyes never wavering from the fawn and its mother.

Lorenz shook his head, though he wasn’t sure if Claude had noticed. “It seems we agree on something, but I still cannot stop from worrying that they will not be able to find food once I am no longer able to feed them,” Lorenz admitted the conflicting feelings he had about this habit of his without meaning to, that was the worst part of talking with Claude. The boy was great at getting others to give up their secrets without giving any of his own.

“And yet you still do,” Claude spoke, not sounding accusatory but Lorenz geared up to defend himself all the same. “It’s a lot like, like the relationship between parents and children you know? All the parents can do is support their kids until they need to go out on their own, and then all the parent can do is hope they do well on their own. When we graduate, you just have to hope the deer can find their own food,” Claude finished and turned around to look at Lorenz’s reaction.

Lorenz felt himself lean over as he rested his head on his arm as he looked down at Claude. “You seem awfully confident about all that. Is there something you are withholding from public knowledge?”

Claude let his head fall back onto the bench by Lorenz’s side as he laughed at the statement. “No, I’m not a father of a grown child at the ripe age of 17, that was just something that my mother would always say to me.”

Claude’s mother, Lorenz thought to himself. Claude’s mother was his link to the Riegan family, even if Lorenz had known nothing about the woman. He wondered for a second what she looked like, if she had the same eyes as Claude or if she looked nothing like her son.

From the start of the conversation, Lorenz had been aware that their faces were far closer together than he would normally allow in polite company. However that very fact seemed to occur to Claude at random as the boy tensed and sat upright, Lorenz following behind him. The sudden movement startled the deer but they both stayed to continue eating what they’d been given.

“I mean, I know that wild animals aren’t children, obviously,” Claude spoke. “But I guess I have a special place in my heart for these guys,” Claude said while giving a small gesture to the deer.

Lorenz let out a chuckle and reached down to poke at the emblem keeping Claude’s cloak on his uniform. “Because of the Golden Deer class?” He asked.

Claude laughed a little. “Kinda, I saw one once. A golden deer.”

Lorenz looked at him perplexed. Claude was never an easy person to read, but he’d never struck Lorenz as the kind of person to believe in such a legend. “Did you? What happened?”

“Yeah I guess that’s the normal thing to ask after my saying something like that huh?” Claude sighed and returned his head to resting on the bench by Lorenz’s leg, looking up at the sky. “Well I’d spent the first week my mother had told me of her lineage in denial. But the second week, the second week I got angry when no one told me they were joking.

“So I ran away, far into the woods, and naturally, I got lost. I was wandering around trying to find my way back when I saw this glowing silhouette of a deer in the distance, and I followed it home. It had saved me,” Claude finished.

Lorenz didn’t want to rain on Claude’s memory, but it all sounded just a little too fantastical. “Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” Lorenz asked. Claude let a laugh pass through his lips.

“Oh I absolutely was,” He admitted. “I woke up the next day in my bed with the worst fever I’ve ever had in my life. My mother told me the gardener had found me curled up under a bush with a Leicester mythology book clutched to my chest.”

Lorenz knew he should have been noting down everything weird about Claude’s story, that he lived with his mother, that they had a garden and maybe a forest nearby, but this felt far too sensitive to turn around and use as part of a political game.

Lorenz leaned back down to look at Claude leaving them in the original position Claude had tried to pull away from before, but they stayed that way again as Claude started speaking. “It may have been a dream, but it was one of the reasons I came,” Claude spoke.

Lorenz noticed the slip almost immediately but all the same continued to hold eye contact with Claude. He’d give Claude ten seconds to correct himself before saying anything.

“Ah. Came out to the public that I was the heir.”

Lorenz nodded ever so slightly, hoping it would at least communicate that he wasn’t about to turn around and report this whole conversation to his father, though he himself was unsure if he would.

“Hey! You two shouldn’t be feeding the deer!”

A voice cut through the silence surrounding the two of them and before Lorenz had time to properly react to Hilda now yelling at them, he felt a shove on his right side and fell forward.

Claude must have tried to move away because the next thing Lorenz knew their mouths connected for a second before he finally fell on the ground.

Lorenz could hear the deer and her fawn running away as he looked up at Hilda who was covering her mouth in shock. “Oh my goodness! I’m so, so, sorry! I didn’t think I was pushing that hard!” Hilda said as Lorenz forced himself to sit up.

“I am fine, it was just a small tumble,” Lorenz could feel his cheeks flushing from the contact that had happened in the tumble but when he looked over at Claude, he realized he might have actually been taking the whole situation better than the other.

Claude was still covering his mouth and was visibly blushing with a shocked expression.

Hilda laughed as she leaned on the back of the bench looking down at the two of them. “So are you saying you enjoyed that little tumble then?”

“Of course not,” Lorenz pouted and crossed his arms, trying not to look at Hilda as if that would be enough to keep her from noticing that his entire face was burning up.

“W-why did you feel the need to sneak up on us like that anyway?” Claude finally stuttered out at Hilda indignantly. Lorenz turned to him and looked him over. The kiss had seriously embarrassed him, it struck Lorenz that this might be the first time Claude had been acting in front of them without a mask or other lie to keep up.

Hilda didn’t miss a beat as she giggled at him. “Aw, Claude, was that your first kiss or something?” She cooed.

Claude closed his eyes in frustration before replying “No!” just a little too fast to be believable.

Lorenz was riding the emotional high that came with seeing Claude flustered and spoke, “Kisses from your parents won’t count I’m afraid.”

Claude took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, after which he started smirking and all that remained of that glimpse into what an unguarded Claude looked like was a blush still present on his cheeks. Lorenz tried not to let his expression fall too much.

“Now, now Lorenz. You shouldn’t discount the only reason you’ve had your first kiss,” Claude tried to throw the comment back at him.

Lorenz looked to Hilda who was pouting, likely having come to the same conclusions that Lorenz had before speaking again. “No, I’ve already shared a kiss with someone of our age group.”

Claude and Hilda both turned to him with raised brows. “Really when?” Claude asked and Lorenz bit his tongue to keep from laughing as he replied.

“Just now. Or did you forget already?” He asked and watched as Claude’s face went red once again.

This time however he turned heel and announced that actually, the professor wanted him to do some extra drills with his bow tonight and he had to leave right now!

Lorenz and Hilda shared a laugh as Claude retreated from the conversation. “He’s being more open with us than the start of the year don’t you think?” Hilda asked.

“Yes, he is opening up, but he’s moving far too slow with the process. If he truly wants to be a leader, he’ll have to learn to trust his subordinates. I don’t think he does quite yet,” Lorenz spoke. Claude didn’t trust the others in the class, but certainly, if Lorenz kept this conversation in confidence, that would help. And there was his reason to not write his father, he thought to himself.

Hilda giggled at his side as he walked with her back into the dining hall.

“Well if you’re around that will certainly help, loosen him up!” She laughed, and it took Lorenz just a little too long to catch the double meaning behind her words, his cheeks burning anew when he did.

“Hilda! Such distasteful jokes are unbecoming of a maiden such as yourself,” He snapped at her as she kept laughing. He eventually found himself joining in however, such was the nature of Hilda’s laughter.

“I guess I just meant you’re good balancing points for each other,” She said before darting off into the dining hall to Marianne and Leonie’s sides.

Lorenz took one last look into the cold night that lay outside, hoping that the deer would be okay. Though he wasn’t quite sure from what, there weren’t many hunting parties around the monastery and he and Claude had just given them more than enough food to survive one night.

All he had left to do was hope, he guessed.

After the group had routed the bandits that had made their base in the ruins of the monastery the former Golden Deer class had done much the same, having set up a small base in the old church. Other than the pile of debris that Lorenz assumed had once been the ceiling, the place felt almost eerily like it had during their school days.

Raphael was currently acting like he hadn’t seen Ignatz since the battle for the monastery five years ago, even though Lorenz knew they went out of their ways to see each other every few moons. Hilda was gushing loudly about how much better Marianne looked than the last time she’d seen the girl and all Marianne could do in return was meekly accept the praise. And Leonie was currently grilling the professor on where they’d been for the past five years, to which they didn’t seem to have an answer.

Lorenz hummed to himself and enjoyed the entirely nostalgic ambiance as he cut an apple into pieces in his hand.

“You’re not supposed to cut toward your palm,” A voice called from above him.

“Ah Lysithea, you are right. As always,” Lorenz said and moved to hold the apple so that the knife was going away from his hand instead of toward it.

“Why are you cutting an apple anyway?” Lysithea asked as she sat down next to him, clearly having judged all the other conversations not worth trying to engage in. Or perhaps she just wanted some of the fruit. “It doesn’t seem like a noble thing to do.”

Lorenz laughed and handed the girl a slice from the handkerchief in his lap. “Maybe not, but how else am I going to get sliced apples out here?”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Lysithea said, in a manner that might have been intimidating if she weren’t balancing her apple slice between her teeth. Lorenz huffed.

“I just wanted to eat an apple, and please try not to talk and eat at the same time,” He said.

Lysithea finished her apple slice with a nod, “Alright then, I wanted to ask if you knew where Claude’s run off to?”

“I’m not his keeper,” Lorenz replied. No one, not even the revived professor could keep their leader still for more than five minutes. But all the same he stood up to go looking for him, wrapping up the apple slices in his handkerchief. Lysithea only shook her head and went to talk to Leonie and Byleth.

As soon as he’d walked out of the church doors, exactly who he was looking for came running down the bridge to meet him. “Lorenz! There you are! Come on!” Claude didn’t even wait for a reply before he grabbed at Lorenz’s hand and started dragging him into the monastery ruins.

“Where are we going Claude?” Lorenz finally asked when they’d slowed down to a steady walking pace, they were approaching the gardens by the dining hall.

“Look, over there,” Claude said in a low voice and Lorenz followed his gaze to where a single deer stood in the field, chewing on overgrown grass. “It’s the fawn from that time, I think. I was out feeding the birds and I saw her and then I just thought I had to go get you.”

Lorenz looked on and watched the deer foraging on her own and felt something well in his chest, the deer were fine on their own, finding their own food. The feeling was mostly happiness to see that the deer was alive and well, but also a small string of sadness that maybe he was never necessary for the animal.

All the same he reached down for his handkerchief and undid the knot to reveal the apple slices. He looked up just in time to see Claude smiling at him as he motioned for Lorenz to follow him closer to the deer.

They sat down on the grass and Lorenz gave Claude a slice of apple that the man gently threw to the deer, she seemed nervous about it at first, but slowly moved forward to take the piece of fruit.

Lorenz watched the way Claude watched the deer. He always seemed more relaxed around animals, be them stray cats around Deidrue or the birds out in forests.

“We’re definitely going to rebuild the monastery, so we can stay ‘round to feed her,” Claude spoke, without noticing the way Lorenz was staring at him.

“Is that your only reason? Not all the other ones you’ve been going on about?” Lorenz laughed a little at the way Claude pouted when he finally turned back to look at Lorenz, swiping another apple slice for the deer.

“In a perfect world, yeah, we could just live here and feed deer, cats and ducks for the rest of our lives,” Claude spoke. “But alas, there’s a war to win and a political landscape to appease.”

Lorenz didn’t really know how to reply to that, he knew the words Claude spoke to be true, even if he also knew the other man was just parroting his own words back at him. He took an apple slice from his handkerchief and upon seeing that there were only two pieces left took a bite out of one while passing the handkerchief to Claude.

There was something in the way Claude looked, perhaps more openly sad than usual that made Lorenz want to change his expression in any way. It was the memory of how Claude used to always react badly to Lorenz or Hilda bringing up the incident from the last time they fed the deer together that spurred Lorenz to lean in and brush their lips together.

And just as expected Claude jerked away from Lorenz when he realized what was happening, the sudden movement scaring the deer off. Lorenz laughed at the sight of the unflappable Claude von Riegan blushing.

“What was that?!” He snapped, finally attempting to cover his face with his hand. Lorenz gave one final laugh before standing up and walking away. “Hey! Lorenz!” Claude eventually stood up to follow after him.

“Hm, I don’t get why you’re reacting so loudly, it was an accident,” Lorenz spoke, not opening his eyes, sure that he would break down laughing at whatever face Claude was making.

“An accident huh?” He heard Claude’s voice before feeling a hand wrap around his own.

“Claude…” Lorenz tried to warn, but Claude simply hummed and swung their hands back and forth.

“What? It’s just an accident,” Claude gave him a smile and Lorenz shook his head, figuring he couldn’t really argue with that.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, but like actually don’t feed the wild animals around your school/church/anywhere that doesn’t want you to feed animals XD  
It was really fun writing something short for once! I hope everyone enjoyed it!


End file.
